Israel-Hamas: a first group of foreigners and dual nationals arrived in Egypt from Gaza

A first group, notably of women and children, foreigners or dual nationals, arrived in Egypt on Wednesday after leaving the Gaza Strip relentlessly bombarded by Israel, an Egyptian official reported to AFP on condition of anonymity. Egyptian televisions broadcast images of women, children and elderly men getting off buses, some with strollers, on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border post, the only opening to the world of the small Palestinian territory which is not in the hands of Israel.

Holders of foreign passports, foreigners or dual-national Palestinians, were authorized to enter the Palestinian Rafah crossing around 07:45 GMT after the announcement of an exceptional opening to allow the passage of nearly 90 wounded Palestinians and around 545 dual-nationals. and foreigners.

A list of 4,000 injured requiring care

A list with their name, nationality and passport number was published by the administration of the Palestinian side of the crossing. According to foreign chancelleries, nationals of 44 countries including employees of 28 foreign agencies, organizations or NGOs are in the Gaza Strip, where 2.4 million inhabitants must survive under bombs, without water, without electricity, without telephone or internet on Wednesday and almost without food due to the “total siege” imposed by Israel after 16 years of blockade.

Before them, nearly 90 injured people, including 40 children, women and elderly people, were evacuated from the Gaza Strip by Palestinian ambulances before being taken care of by Egyptian caregivers and rescuers. In Egypt, an AFP correspondent saw at least three ambulances enter the grounds of Cheikh Zoueid hospital, about ten kilometers west of Rafah. Egyptian television also announced that three injured people were transferred to al-Arich hospital, capital of the North Sinai province, about forty kilometers from Rafah. According to a Palestinian official, “the children and some old people have chaperones with them.”

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in the Hamas government in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qudra, told AFP that his services had submitted to Egypt a list of 4,000 wounded requiring care which cannot be provided in the Gaza Strip. “We hope that they will be able to leave in the coming days because they need surgical interventions which cannot be carried out in Gaza. We must save their lives,” he said. In the Gaza Strip, held by Hamas since 2007, more than 8,500 people were killed and thousands more injured in Israeli bombings in retaliation for the bloody Hamas attack perpetrated on October 7 in Israel (more than 1,400 dead).